Sirantha Jax series
The Sirantha Jax series is written by Ann Aguirre. Genres and Sub-Genres Science Fiction / Sci-Fi Urban Fantasy / Romantic Science Fiction / Futuristic ✬ "It's a little bit space opera, a little bit romance, a little bit horror, and a whole lot of fun." ~ SF Site ✬ Grimspace is space opera at its best, a genre that mixes science fiction and urban fantasy to deliver fast-paced action-packed adventures full of airships, multiple planets, aliens, and genetic engineering. ~ Ivy Book Bindings Brief Series Description or Overview ✥ SIRANTHA JAX: Grimspace is space opera at its best, a genre that mixes science fiction and urban fantasy to deliver fast-paced action-packed adventures full of airships, multiple planets, aliens, and genetic engineering. In the world Aguirre creates, rare individuals born with a J-Gene are indispensable and used to jump through grimspace. Sirantha Jax is an anomaly among her kind, thirty-three years old and still jumping successfully unlike the countless others who have burned out young. Now, however, Jax is the sole survivor of a crash - one in which she lost her best friend and lover, Kai - and unable to remember the details of that event, she is kept in a psychiatric ward. Enter: March. A hard, inscrutable mind-reader (of a kind), March offers Jax a position with his crew to jump with them and help other planets. Needless to say, Jax takes the opportunity to escape her prison and before she knows it, she's on the run. ~ Ivy Book Bindings ✥ DRED CHRONICLES: Prison Break in space—on a prison ship filled with warring factions, hostile territories and savage retribution. Lead's Species * Space Jumper — a woman who possesses the unique genetic makeup needed to navigate faster Primary Supe * Aliens What Sets it Apart * Interesting blend of Sci-fi and Urban Fantasy Narrative Type and Narrators * First person narrative, present tense, told by Sirantha Jax, protagonist. Books in Series Sirantha Jax series: # Grimspace (2008) # Wanderlust (2008) # Doubleblind (2009) # Killbox (2010) # Aftermath (2011) # Endgame (2012) ~ Final Companion Series, Spinoffs, Sequels or Prequels Dred Chronicles: (trilogy set in the Jax universe) #Perdition (Aug 27, 2013) #Havoc (2014) #Breakout (Aug 25, 2015) ~ Final Themes * Books 3–4: What happens when the rebels win and become part of the system? Other Series by Author on Site Corine Solomon series (UF) World Building Setting New Terra Places: * Matins IV: planet Jax crashed on * Ithiss-Tor: #2, Jax's mission for Conglomerate: convince them to join an alliance—Ithtorian inhabitants: reclusive race of alien insectoids; Vel's home planet; * Lachion: #2, stope to visit old friends—descends into a nightmarish period of violence and struggle as two feuding clans engage in an all-out, last-ditch war, with Jax and her friends caught in the middle * New Earth: Sirantha Jax may have saved New Earth and its allied planets from a war they cannot win against the flesh-eating Morgut, but it came at the cost of six hundred Conglomerate soldiers; * Venice Minor: #5, Jax returns there after changing the beacons in grim space * Nicu Tertius: March travels there in search of his orphaned nephew during Jax's trail. * La'heng: #6, home of the Lahengrin— * Supernatural and Sci-Fi Elements ✥ Grimspace, Space-Jumpers, aliens, telepaths, psychics, alien insectoids, pirates, flesh-eating spider beings, genetically engineered super people, space crime-mob, man-eating aliens, genetic engineering, clan warfare, starships, interstellar travel, hatchling, guerilla war, clones, cloning, Glossary: * Grimspace: method by which people “jump” and travel through space—this world’s version of faster-than-light travel. * J-gene: allows a Jumper to jump a ship through space (grimspace) while jacked in and mentally bonded with her pilot. * Morgut: flesh-eating spider beings—insidious race of pitiless carnivores; a species of violent, frenzied eaters that see everyone as food—appear to be targeting scientists; * Ithtorians: inhabitants of Ithiss-Tor—reclusive race of alien insectoids (Mantis); Vel's home planet; the only species the Morgut have ever respected; * La’hengrin: race of beings given a drug to make them docile and wholly dependent on whomever can protect them best, making them, in effect, property instead of people; Loras is one; * Beacons: Jax changed the beacons in grimspace to prevent most of the vast Morgut fleet from jumping to their part of the universe; * Shinai-Bond: What kept the La’hengrin enslaved to the Nicuans—the cure is finally functional, if not entirely safe, and Loras’s people have a chance to stand up and fight, something they haven’t had in a very long time 'Groups & Organizations': * Corp: hold a monopoly on interstellar travel * Conglomerate: interplanetary government, rules New Terra—names Sirantha Jax ambassador to Ithiss-Tor and charge her with opening negotiations to ally them; * Farwan Corporation: power-hungry institution who ruthlessly exploits personnel for its own ends * Syndicate: criminal space mob; * Nicuan nobles: enslaved the La’hengrin * La’heng Liberation Army: When peaceful measures fail to convince Nicuan nobles to make the cure available to the La’hengrin, Loras, Jax, Vel and a few other very competent friends are left with no choice but to form the La’heng Liberation Army and start a war to free Loras’s people from slavery. World ✥ Every human jumper has a finite number of jumps in them. They tend to “burn out” if they jump too many times. And if they don’t want to burn out they choose to retire instead. March and his crew finally tell Jax their plan: they want to train a new generation of grimspace jumpers who last longer (Jax herself has been jumping far longer than the average human), by somehow incorporating alien DNA into their biology. So the team goes on a mission to recruit alien jumpers, and hijinks ensue. ~ Sirantha Jax | Making My Own Worlds ✥ Navigating a ship through grimspace significantly shortens a jumper’s life expectancy. Indeed, Jax has already outlived all her contemporaries—other than those who chose to retire and become teachers. But she has already decided that isn’t a lifestyle choice available to her, addicted as she is to the lure of grimspace. However, those around her have little patience or understanding with her frequent thoughts about her impending death, particularly March. One of the many sources of conflict between the two of them. ~ Brainfluff Protagonist ✥ Sirantha Jax isn't a kick-ass fighter-esque chick the way Katniss is, but she knows how to hold her own and her sharp tongue, unexpected honesty, and sass make her a thoroughly enjoyable narrator. Furthermore, her back story and present psychological situation make for a perplexing and unusually deep character. Additionally, her relationship with March is so twisted and unusual, filled with two individuals who are broken, but who don't necessarily heal each other. If anything, they understand one another and manage to retain their individuality. Furthermore, March is a hero in his own right, one who tries to atone for his past sins through a better present and this only makes him all the more attractive. Although theirs was an unconventional relationship that took on a different arc than most, it fit them perfectly. ~ Ivy Book Bindings ✥ Jax is a very complex character, having gone through extreme heartache and loss. Part of her wants to live a normal life away from the dangers of “jumping,” but the other part would never be content with a mundane life. Jax is on the run from the authorities, so there is plenty of adventure. Sirantha Jax is a fascinating protagonist. Fearless, foul-mouthed, brash, independent, and severely broken on the inside, she won't let anyone—or anything—mess with her for long. She's got good reasons to hurt, but she doesn't wallow in her pity unnecessarily, accepting the need to change and grow as her experiences teach her, thus proving that at the core, she's really quite a strong character. ~ SF Site Crew: Her chemistry with March is fun to watch, as she takes her measure of the telepath and gives plenty of attitude in return. Her relations with the rest of the tight-knit crew are equally fun, as she deals with their quirks and issues. Of the secondary crew, Dina is the rough-and-tumble mechanic who always has an insult, snarky comment, or pointed truth to offer her friends, even as she works miracles with the ships that they use and abuse in their line of work. ~ SF Site * Companions – a rather snarky lesbian mechanic (Dina), a peaceful alien slave, cold-hearted March, and a kind-hearted doctor (Doc) / or — cranky mechanic (Dina), a pacifist savant, a mild geneticist (Doc), and a telepathic pilot (March) (SF Site); newcomers of Hit (an exotic, unusual hitwoman) and Constance (an AI serving as Jax's personal assistant) Book Cover Summaries ✤ BOOK ONE - Grimspace (2008): As the carrier of a rare gene, Jax has the ability to jump ships through grimspace—a talent which cuts into her life expectancy, but makes her a highly prized navigator for the Corp. But then the ship she’s navigating crash-lands, and she’s accused of killing everyone on board. It’s hard for Jax to defend herself: she has no memory of the crash. Now imprisoned and the subject of a ruthless interrogation, Jax is on the verge of madness. Then a mysterious man breaks into her cell, offering her freedom—for a price. March needs Jax to help his small band of rogue fighters break the Corp monopoly on interstellar travel—and establish a new breed of jumper. Jax is only good at one thing—grimspace—and it will eventually kill her. So she may as well have some fun in the meantime. ~ Grimspace | Ann Aguirre (excerpt) ✤ BOOK TWO - Wanderlust (2008): Sirantha Jax doesn’t take chances…she jumps at them… Sirantha Jax is a “Jumper,” a woman who possesses the unique genetic makeup needed to navigate faster than light ships through grimspace. Jax has worked for the Farwan Corporation her entire career. But now the word’s out that the Corp deliberately crashed a passenger ship, and their stranglehold on intergalactic commerce has crumbled—which means that Jax is out of a job. She’s also broke, due to being declared dead a little prematurely. So when the government asks her to head up a vital diplomatic mission, Jax takes it. Her mandate: journey to the planet Ithiss-Tor and convince them to join the Conglomerate. But Jax’s payday is light years away. First, she’ll have to contend with Syndicate criminals, a stormy relationship with her pilot, man-eating aliens, and her own grimspace-weakened body. She’ll be lucky just to make it to Ithiss-Tor alive. ~ Wanderlust | Ann Aguirre (excerpt) ✤ BOOK THREE - Doubleblind (2009): It’s not easy to tread lightly wearing steel-toed boots. Sirantha Jax isn’t known for diplomatic finesse. As a “Jumper” who navigates ships through grimspace, she’s used to kicking ass first and taking names later—much later. Not exactly the obvious choice to sell the Conglomerate to the Ithtorians, a people whose opinions of humans are as hard as their exoskeletons. And Ithiss-Tor council meetings aren’t the only place where Ambassador Jax needs to maneuver carefully. Her lover, March, is frozen in permanent “kill” mode, and his hair-trigger threatens to sabotage the talks—not to mention their relationship. But Jax won’t give up on the man or the mission. With the Outskirts beleaguered by raiders, pirates, and the flesh-eating Morgut, an alliance with Ithiss-Tor may be humanity’s only hope. Which has Jax wondering why a notorious troublemaker like her was given the job. ~ Doubleblind | Ann Aguirre (excerpt) ✤ BOOK FOUR - Killbox (2010): Talk is cheap when lives are in jeopardy. Sirantha Jax is a “Jumper,” a woman who possesses the unique genetic makeup needed to navigate faster than light ships through grimspace. With no tolerance for political diplomacy, she quits her ambassador post so she can get back to saving the universe the way she does best—by mouthing off and kicking butt. And her tactics are needed more than ever. Flesh-eating aliens are attacking stations on the outskirts of space, and for many people, the Conglomerate’s forces are arriving too late to serve and protect them. Now, Jax must take matters into her own hands by recruiting a militia to defend the frontiers—out of the worst criminals, mercenaries, and raiders that ever traveled through grim space. ~ Killbox | Ann Aguirre (excerpt) ✤ BOOK FIVE - Aftermath (2011): DEAD HEROES GET MONUMENTS. LIVE ONES GET TRIALS. Sirantha Jax has the right genes—ones that enable her to “jump” faster-than-light ships through grimspace. But it’s also in her genetic makeup to go it alone. It’s a character trait that has gotten her into—and out of—hot water time and time again, but now she’s caused one of the most horrific events in military history. During the war against murderous, flesh-eating aliens, Sirantha went AWOL and shifted grimspace beacons to keep the enemy from invading humanity’s homeworld. The cost of her actions: the destruction of modern interstellar travel—and the lives of six hundred Conglomerate soldiers. Accused of dereliction of duty, desertion, mass murder, and high treason, Sirantha is on trial for her life. And only time will tell if she’s one of the Conglomerate’s greatest heroes—or most infamous criminals. ~Aftermath | Ann Aguirre (excerpt) ✤ BOOK SIX - Endgame (2012): REGRET NOTHING. Sirantha Jax has the J-gene, which permits her to “jump” faster-than-light ships through grimspace. She loves nothing more than that rush, but the star roads have to wait. — Her final mission takes her to La’heng, a planet subjugated during first contact. Since then, the La’hengrin homeworld has been occupied by foreign conquerors. All that’s about to change. Now, as part of a grass-roots resistance, Jax means to liberate the La’hengrin. Political intrigue and guerrilla warfare are new to her; this will be the most dangerous game she’s ever played—spies and conspiracies, a war of weapons and hearts, and everyone might not make it out alive. ~Endgame | Ann Aguirre (excerpt) Category:Series